“My theory is that we are all here in Worcester to achieve things that the city needs. There’s a lot of culture here, a lot of artists and a lot of fascinating people. We’re going to start doing great things.”

As the phenomenon of binge-watching television series becomes more like a national pastime, particularly for millennials, a Worcester-bred author of that maligned and melancholy generation wants to encourage a healthy obsession with reading.

“I plan to change the perception of books,” said Nicholas Kurt Duffy, who self-published his first novel, “Linda and the Real World,” on Jan. 9. The book, says Duffy, has “something for everyone” and with only 156 pages could be read in less than three hours.

“One excuse people use is ‘books are boring,’ which is a conditioned response. The other is ‘I don’t have time,’ ” Duffy said. “We have time to stare aimlessly at social networks and binge watch shows on Netflix for 70 hours, but not to read books? Why?”

While the writing took Duffy about one year to complete, he said he spent more than five years in the “real world” collecting material.

“It’s about a girl who falls through her television and enters the ‘real world.’ She meets four friends, and the book is about their experiences in the ‘real world,’ he said.

As Duffy describes it on his website, The Author of Gen, “Linda” “is a work of fiction. I call it a fairy tale. … [it] is written for people, regardless of their age, and for you yourself.”

Far from an open book himself, Duffy, 24, is reluctant to share too much about the novel and prefers to avoid comparisons. Similarly, in very un-millennial style, the Holy Name Central Catholic High School alum asked not to be photographed for this story. He’d rather “keep to himself,” he says, but did offer that his website moniker and the definition of “Gen” would “make sense in about five years.”

“My theory is that we are all here in Worcester to achieve things that the city needs. There’s a lot of culture here, a lot of artists and a lot of fascinating people. We’re going to start doing great things.”

As the phenomenon of binge-watching television series becomes more like a national pastime, particularly for millennials, a Worcester-bred author of that maligned and melancholy generation wants to encourage a healthy obsession with reading.

“I plan to change the perception of books,” said Nicholas Kurt Duffy, who self-published his first novel, “Linda and the Real World,” on Jan. 9. The book, says Duffy, has “something for everyone” and with only 156 pages could be read in less than three hours.

“One excuse people use is ‘books are boring,’ which is a conditioned response. The other is ‘I don’t have time,’ ” Duffy said. “We have time to stare aimlessly at social networks and binge watch shows on Netflix for 70 hours, but not to read books? Why?”

While the writing took Duffy about one year to complete, he said he spent more than five years in the “real world” collecting material.

“It’s about a girl who falls through her television and enters the ‘real world.’ She meets four friends, and the book is about their experiences in the ‘real world,’ he said.

As Duffy describes it on his website, The Author of Gen, “Linda” “is a work of fiction. I call it a fairy tale. … [it] is written for people, regardless of their age, and for you yourself.”

Far from an open book himself, Duffy, 24, is reluctant to share too much about the novel and prefers to avoid comparisons. Similarly, in very un-millennial style, the Holy Name Central Catholic High School alum asked not to be photographed for this story. He’d rather “keep to himself,” he says, but did offer that his website moniker and the definition of “Gen” would “make sense in about five years.”

So, there’s that.

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